Report: Camera fix for the Lumia 920 coming from Nokia this month

The Lumia 920 has impressed many with the PureView camera technology Nokia has installed inside the Windows Phone. The optical image stabilisation (OIS), software enhancements and Carl Zeiss lens are just a few features that work together to create some truly astonishing magic when taking shots in low light.

However, there's an issue with photographs taken in good amounts light. Lack of detail, sharpness and while it's not a deal breaker, it does cause alarm especially when low light shots are that good. Thankfully, Nokia is set to release a firmware update to address problems raised by consumers.

We've taken a second look at the Lumia 920 camera and concluded that while the low light performance was nothing short of incredible, there was room for improvement. When taking shots that weren't at night (or in a dark room), one would notice a lack of detail and blurriness. This could be rectified through post-capture editing, but we'd expect such a superior camera to have little issue.

The image above compares quality between the Lumia 920 prior the update and with it applied. Our George Ponder went into some detail when looking at the current state of the camera:

"Low-light performance is remarkable but the camera is hindered by a few in-camera settings. Settings that leave images slightly soft. Nothing to make you scream and the softness is easily corrected with post-processing software. We feel that this softness can easily be fixed with a firmware update to allow the Lumia 920 to reach its full potential."

We've always believed Nokia would release an update (or rather bundle it with an OS OTA update) soon enough to iron out any creases in the camera software for the production of sharper, clear images to be possible. This is turning to reality with the update in the works and well on the way. Engadget obtained a number of photos taken with two Lumia 920s (one is visible above with the cats). One Lumia 920 (left) is using existing firmware - PR1.0, while the second is running the upcoming version - PR1.1.

The Lumia 920's camera and housing

It's clear from analysing the photos supplied that Nokia has made strong progress on fixing the Lumia 920 camera to make results sharper and more clear. While it's not perfect, we're sure the company will continue to work on adding improvements when possible - we saw a software update released for the Lumia 900 that improved the camera quality greatly.

The update is expected to be bundled with Microsoft's upcoming 'Portico' release for Windows Phone 8. For Lumia 920 owners, this OTA update will not only contain the camera fix (as well as other software enhancements), but also the constant WiFi connection and will address the random reset issue, SMS drafts and call rejection functionality to name but a handful of features that are on their way.

If you'd like to read up more on how to effectively use the camera on the Lumia 920, be sure to read up on our in-depth guide to all the features and functionality.

99% of the time I take pictures in the daylight. Daylight pictures on the 920, as they stand, suck. I stand by the OP on this one. Good low light pictues and audio recording doesn't make up for sh*tty daylight shots.

The pictures after the update look better, still look soft, but better.

I didnt say "not impressive" in the sense that they're garbage. I said "not impressive" as in It doesn't stand head n shoulders above competition. I take more well-lit photos with the titan... and they come out sharper. Simple as that. I thought Nokia was going to be the messiah as far as camera-capabilities go in a phone but they're just another competitor, in my eyes.
basically... in the future, the camera Nokia touts is not going to be the deciding factor anymore in me choosing my next phone.

I kept it because I like it. I never said the 920 didn't take satisfactory pictures. I simply said the pictures the Titan takes are more sharp. What do you think the purpose of this patch is for?!?!?! Nokia recognized the issue themselves.

So what is so impressive from Titan's camera? A camera beast? Don't make me laught, Titan camera is worse compared to 8X and 8X camera is worse compared to Lumia 920. Titan II? Same sensor but stuffing more megapixels. That's what you call impressive? What a pathetic attempt for HTC. HTC is never known and will never been known for quality camera, almost every review of their phone said that their camera totally sucks compared to the competition.

Yes Daniel, it doesn't impress me. Going from a Dell Venue pro to a Titan... I was impressed. It was an obvious jump in quality... Going from a Titan to a Lumia920... I wasn't impressed. Good photos sure... but it didn't "impress" me. Do note, the exact definition of impress is "1.affect or please somebody greatly: to have a strong, usually favorable effect on the mind or feelings of somebody". Impress =/= is good. It means that it is good to the point of having a marginally better effect than what was previously experienced.

I am impressed by the low lighting and video. In fact very blown away by how some low light photos come out. But I rarely ever use video... ever
I take pictures more often when there is good lighting... and the titan continuously impressed me. I'm talking about the titan 1... I never demoed the titan 2.

No other camera has the "option" of low light photography with results this impressive. Maybe if you had a phone with the option you'd opt to use it more since, well, since now you have that option to do so.

This is great news! The only question that US AT&T users have to ask now is... will we get this update in a timely fashion - will it still drop on our phones this month? I'd love to have this update in hand before I head back south for vacation on the 25th...

Hopefully tomorrow. Microsoft likes to release patches on Tuesday. Tuesday makes sense to me. Monday you come back from the weekend, do a few more rounds of tests, then Tuesday you can release and still have 3 days left to shut things down if a big bug pops up.

I really hope for Microsoft's sake that this patch comes out quickly for MS. I know a few who are having the rebooting phone issue. It is hard to be super happy with your phone if it randomly reboots on you.

I personally am really looking forward to the reply to call with SMS.

In addition if MS can get this on all phones on all providers within 30 days of release it will make all of the tech people happy. iPhone still rules with the day 1 patch release. Android is the worst. If Microsoft can show that all WP8 devices can expect the update within 30 days of release -- that would be great.

I think ideally, yes WP8 would follow a normal patch tuesday cycle. However clearly this is some what of a rush job and MS has to push this out ASAP. Word of mouth about randomly rebooting phones will kill the brand faster than all of the good reviews they are getting (Consumer Reports rated the HTC 8X only 1 point below the iPhone 5).

Dude, patch Tuesday isn't happening on the phone system, Microsoft has no way to directly patch the OS without going through the carriers (no recent mention of the enthusiast program) and updates spend at least a month or two in carrier testing.

I would love for that to happen but we probably won't need four weeks of updates either, mobile OS is much less complex.

These photos do not reveal the issue. Take photos in day or night of distant scenery. This is where the soft focus really shows up. Compare daytime distant scenery shots with an iPhone and it becomes very obvious. The 920 looks like its a 7.5MP at a distance.

The photos are in general, absolutely atrocious for demonstrating anything about the camera. Regardless, the *point* is Nokia is updating the firmware for the camera and optimizing it, meaning it should greatly improve.

Until we get our hands on it though, it's hard to discern to which degree. But seeing how Nokia improved the 900's camera significantly, we have faith that they will do the same with the 920.

The amount of MP don't make that big of a difference (relatively speaking). It could have a 6 MP sensor and still take better pictures than something at 8 MP. In fact, having a lower number of MP in certain situations can result in much better pictures.

I'm saying the quality looks like it came from a 7.5 mp camera and not an 8.7. Take a 7.5 (or less) photo and rescale it to 8.7 and its about what the 920 quality level is. Just an analogy. The real issue is focus.

The cat picture looks like poop on my 920. I hope they don't apply too much sharpening where the images look crispy . I still font understand how apple can achieve such great images . Its basically night and day between the 920 and iPhone 4s/5

That would be because Apple does to their photos what Bose does to sound, process it in a way that it appears pleasant to a human being which is not the same as providing you with actual true to life images.

That may be true, but look at the comparison (here on wpcentral) of the 920, a DSLR, and the 8X. The 8X does much better overall than the 920! If you can't claim better than the 8X then you surely are not living up to claims/hype.

I bought the 920 on the hype/promise of the best camera phone. How did the prototype do different? If the camera was as good as I hoped (simply better than my 4s under most conditions) I would be the ultimate 920 fanboy, but....

Yes. I'm not sure why that is, but I've seen that elsewhere. Not just the 920. This may happen regardless of a camera fix probably due to the differences in how the view is rendered at screen resolution versus a rescaled photo.

I think what you are seeing is the transition from viewfinder image to the actual photo and therein lies the issue. The image is showing you what the photo could look like but once the software massages the actual capture and fuzzes it all up with whatever Pureview algorithms are supposed to be helping, you see the softness appear. I think that softening of the image is what Nokia will be fixing. I can't wait because that really is the only thing that I find disappointing about the camera.

I think I'll wait until portico has been released to all regions before I buy the 920. I want it for more than the camera, but the cameras performance plays a part of wanting the phone. Fortunately, I have a n8, I just didnt want to carry around 2 phones with 1 being the designated picture taker. I still think I might have to

My N8 is sidelined after purchasing my Lumia 900 a few weeks ago. Neither the Lumia 900 nor the Lumia 920 can best the N8 at 12MP, but I took most of my N8 photos at 9M/16:9 ratio. While having the option of 12MP is nice, I opted for 9M and the Lumia 900 while not quite the quality, comes close enough for my use. The N8 cannot best the Lumia 920 with regards to video, nor night time photos, however, I don't film much or snap at night, so I opted for the Lumia 900.

The next gen Lumia's a year from now, I think, will be the best balance with regards to their Pureview technology, and that is when I will make another purchase; but my N8(and Symbian) has been benched!

I admit I'm bashing, but that's because I feel betrayed by Nokia whom I love. Only a fix that makes the camera better than my 4s at a distance will make me happy. Until then, I'm keeping it real and not providing false hope. If they do fix it to expectations they will regain a Nokia evangelist.

Betrayed?! Too strong a word to use isn't it? You make it sound like Nokia is intentionally trying to cheat you. Is it too hard to believe that it is an unintentional mistake and let them have a chance to fix the problem instead of bashing them even before you have a chance to test the fix and see the results for yourself? And I cannot understand that if you really love Nokia as you say then why is there such a lack of trust and negativity on their ability to resolve the issue? And if it ends up being a hardware issue that they weren't able to fix, you can alway return the phone. And if then you still can't get rid of the feeling of being betrayed and lied to, you can always take legal action. Its not as you'll be the first to sue Nokia in the past few months.

Betrayed, eh. If you watched the launch of the Lumia 920, Nokia touted the low light photography and OIS - this was the highlight of their camera demo. They did not tout that daylight photos were the best - how could they? That crown belongs to the Nokia 808!

At the end of the day, you and anyone else feeling betrayed or disappointed with daylight photos had plenty of time to return the product for a full refund...no sure why some held on to the device only to bash the camera/other functionality.

Maybe you're missing the point. If everyone clapped their hands and said "good job Nokia" then there would be no update. I love my Lumia. But the camera issue is a thorn in my side. And I'll keep bitching about it until it's fixed. Keep in mind that if they don't fix it, it is a serious fail on their part. I can paste numerous links that show how bad it is, and you will find that I'm one of many who are not a happy with the camera. That said, I (and others) did not return the phone out of hope for a fix, and also the fact that asdie from the camera issues it's a really awesome device overall. The only thing that would have stopped me from buying an 8X instead is that Nokia does provide better app support (like Nokia Drive).

Whats scary is that this flaw wasnt picked up on prior to release. Come on Nokia, you are up against the ropes; cant be making these types of mistakes. Apple's more recent record (with maps for example) has not been amazing either; but they can afford to make mistakes (with their $120billion in the bank)

Well hey, a lot of people saw reviews of pre-production 920s where the camera performed great as well as believed Nokias Pureview marketing didn't exclude daytime photography. Obviously poor execution to not only fake the OIS-video demonstration but also release the phone with pre-mature image software/settings.

Wouldnt it be great if investors and customers were that patient/understanding: "My phone's camera doesn't work as it should, but its ok, because Nokia has to manage over 100 phones and apple only has to manage 4". "We've lost boatloads of $$$ in our Nokia stock, but that's ok, its not Nokia's fault. They have to manage over 100 phones while Apple only has to manage 4. So let me continue to invest in Nokia." Get my point? Only the end-result matters. Nokia cannot be making mistakes in their most crucial time. Reasons aren't important.

I'm looking forward to this update because from what I've read there are improvements that can be made to processing. However, when I look at a phone and compare its lense size to say something like this http://tinyurl.com/cdyn486 "real" lens, I can't believe what people actually expect from a phone camera.
I'm a photographer and love gadgets, therefore having a camera on my phone that takes decent pictures is a good thing eventhough I know it will never replace my DSLR camera. And, I don't expect it to.
What I hope they don't do is over sharpen the pictures to make it "look nice". As a photographer, I know that if I have a soft picture I can sharpen it in post processing. If I have an over sharpen picture, I'm stuck with it. As I photographer I also know that if I don't have the details at capture time, I can't add them later in post processing. Fixing that "lost of details" that sometimes appears to happen is what I'm really looking forward to before I start using my L920.
In the reivew (http://tinyurl.com/cg4g8pz) of the L920 at Neowin, Tim complained about the camera. In the comments you can find some comments from "Jaybot". He posted a link (http://jaybotography.tumblr.com/) to some photos he's taken with the L920. Hmmm. Maybe what they say in the photography world is right "Is not the camera, is the photographer" that makes the picture.
And, before you ask for my pictures, I don't have my L920 yet. That's coming next week, you know on the 25th.

Well I'm certainly impressed by the camera already, and knowing this fix is on the way is even more impressive. Quick turn around, and continuing to improve their products. Very nice. This is how one knows they made the right choice.

Haha i am a guy. I dont actually take that many pictures of myself (that i will admit to). However, this issue in particular stopped my wife from trading in her iphone for this phone. Turning the phone around and taking a picture of yourself is extremely cumbersome with the lumia -- pressing button is not ideal and worst of all, you can't tell if you've certered it correctly. give it a try, its possible, but far less ideal that using a frontfacing camera. That and video is pretty much the whole point of FF camera. It looks like Nokia completely overelooked making it work well for the pictures.

The picture re-posted here does not really give you a good comparison. Go over to Engadget and look at more shots there. The one showing a 100% crop comparison shows a clearly sharper image. On the other shots it is harder to tell because the captures are not large enough, but even at that level you can see more detail. This is a much preferrable solution than just dialing up the sharpness using Creative Studio.

My Lumia 920 had great photos on it, but it bricked up and I had to send it back to Nokia, on monday the 10th of December. I still haven't received notification of Nokia receiving my broken lumia or them sending a replacement. If anyone that knows nokia well, could contact me that would be MUCHO APPRECIATED. thanks windows phone pros.

I'd really like to see some option for the amount of compression applied to the pictures. Personally I'd like a little less compression on my pictures, I be happy with images up to 5mb rather than the 2.5mb that they are now, theoretically they would contain more detail.

Yes, betrayed. Betrayed by their claims: "Best camera in a smartphone."
During the glory days of N9x series, Nokia really delivered. Even though symbian became antiquated quickly, they still delivered on my expectations. If you're a camera, or camera phone enthusiast, you are no doubt disappointed, and therefore disapointed in Nokia releasing this device with the hype they are making.
I have plenty of friends and colleagues interested in the Lumia, but I cannot in good faith endorse it with that level of 'mistake'. Reading some of the articles, I'm very curious why it supposedly took better photos as a prototype. And my real concern is that this issue is no fixable via software. :( Adding more 'sharpness' to post process is not a fix. I can understand Nokia remaining quiet about this in order to not draw too much attention to the flaw, but in my opinion, this is huge, and they should be throwing everything at it. Again, if they fix it so it has clear focus at a distance (reguardless of the poor white balance and oversaturation) I will be very happy and satisified. Until then, betrayal is an appropriate word.

This is the worst camera I've ever used on a smart phone. Every single picture is blurry, and the auto focus is just plain bogus. When you hype your camera as one of your main features and it becomes obvious that it sucks. Who is going to take you seriously as a major competitor in the smartphone industry? Nokia spent months hyping this crap? And people need to stop comparing the iPhone 5 maps blunder with the Nokia camera fraud, Apple has an excellent google maps app to fall back on!

Obviously your response indicates your immaturity, I've used several phones, and gauging your response, probably several before you were born. A cellphone camera is designed for convenience, if you can't snap off shots in a normal setting and get at least a decent photo your camera probably sucks! If the camera didn't suck, we wouldn't have over 100 postings saying otherwise, sprinkled with a few fan boy postings like yours.

Nothing wrong with my maturity.. Like the one person said if your phone is broken get it replace.. Every picture you take being blurry means something is obviously wrong with your phone and you should exchange it. Nobody has complained on this sight that every picture they take is blurry. They complain about the softer images and the daytime pictures might not be as good as the iPhone 5. I have a 920 and the pictures I took are far from blurry.

Obviously your response indicates your immaturity, I've used several phones, and gauging your response, probably several before you were born. A cellphone camera is designed for convenience, if you can't snap off shots in a normal setting and get at least a decent photo your camera probably sucks! If the camera didn't suck, we wouldn't have over 100 postings saying otherwise, sprinkled with a few fan boy postings like yours.

I thought the improvements made to my 900 camera were very noticeable. It went from being a quite below average smartphone snapper to one of the best out there instantly. Still a bit behind the iPhone and GS3, but no longer embarrassing for sure. If the increment of improvement to the 920 is even close... We'll be looking at the hands down all around champ. I'm stoked to see it.

I like my 920, and the night shots are incredibly impressive, but the day time shots are simply awful. It looks worse than a P&S I had back in 2006. No detail, fuzzy,muddied outdoors, and taking morethan one shot is excruciatingly slow. the only good thing about the camera is the night shots, everything else it does its way behind other mobile phone cameras. I sincerely hope an update can make it halfway decent again, because as it stands right now it is the worst smartphone camera I've ever seen.

This thread is over 120 postings long, and people are still trying to justify this phones terrible performance. This entire launch has been a deceptive failure, from the substandard camera, to the missing apps, to the unstable OS!

My Lumia 810 has the same soft fuzzy photos. I was very angry when I found out my old 5MP BlackBerry gave me better pics than my Lumia 810! And my Bold 9900 doesn't even have auto focus. When I compared the photos between the two phones I was very deflated. I thought 8MP Carl Zeiss would smoke a 5MP BB camera but that wasn't the case. I hope Nokia releases a firmware update the the 8xx series also.

Quick update guys:
I contacted their webchat support last Thursday. It was escalated to level 2.
They called me back today. Support knew nothing about it.
I'm at least glad Nokia support was good. Next is to see how well the camera was fixed with the new firmware.